DIP devices and particularly the new SOJ device form an important part of the electronics industry. SOJ devices are placed on a printed circuit board which has been silk-screened and treated to define precise locations for the solder pads of the SOJ device leads. The DIP and SOJ devices are required to meet certain standards of uniformity for proper application to a printed circuit board. The configuration of the leads for these devices has gone through many stages in order to simplify and expedite the manufacture and assembly to printed circuit boards or the like. The well known prior art DIP devices include those which have leads depending generally transversely downwardly from opposite side edges of the rectangular plastic body portion which are insertable in openings in the printed circuit board. There are also so-called gull-winged SOIC devices of the type shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,101 owned by AMERICAN TECH MANUFACTURING, Assignee of the present application. This patent as well as other patents listed below show various methods and apparatus particularly suited for straightening, forming and scanning DIP devices:
______________________________________ Inventor Patent No. Issued ______________________________________ Linker, Jr. et al 4,686,637 Aug. 11, 1987 Linker et al 4,705,152 Nov. 10, 1987 Linker et al 4,787,426 Nov. 29, 1988 Linker, Jr. 5,113,916 May 2, 1992 ______________________________________
These prior apparatus and systems are geared to scanning and forming DIP/SOIC devices of the type described above and are not suitable for straightening and forming SOJ devices because of the peculiar and unique lead shape and configuration.
The SOJ device by reason of its complex lead configuration requires multiple tolerances such as, "lead to lead" and "coplanarity" requirements which the prior art apparatus and systems are not capable of providing. Thus, even though these prior apparatus are extremely useful for the purposes intended and designed specifically for forming and scanning the prior SOIC and DIP devices, the SOJ device presents special tolerance considerations which are admirably met by the apparatus and system of the present invention.